APC restructuring c’ttee to submit report Oct 31 – El-Rufai Says Nigerian federation’s unbalanced
By Ben Agande & Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA—Northern
Elders Forum, NEF, yesterday, again, weighed in on the state of the
nation, saying while the region was not afraid of the persistent calls
for restructuring, especially from other parts of the country, it would,
however, not allow itself to be stampeded into adopting a premeditated
design that could spell doom.
NEF’s declaration came on a day
chairman of All Progressives Congress, APC, committee on restructuring,
Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, disclosed that his committee will submit its
report to the national chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun,
by end of October.
President of the NEF, Dr Paul Unongo,
disclosed the group’s position at a news conference in Abuja, yesterday,
saying: “We wish to reiterate our consistent position that there are
no issues of disagreement and demands by individuals and groups in the
country or anywhere in the world that dialogue cannot resolve. NEF
acknowledges that we the citizens of Nigeria are capable of resolving
our issues internally.
“The North recognizes and acknowledges
that there are demanding and legitimate questions on the current
operations of the Nigerian state. The North has very clear ideas on all
issues and positions that the nation sees as challenges and is willing
to dialogue on all of them.
“What the North will not allow,
however, is to be stampeded into adopting an agenda and grand designs
from other parts of Nigeria, which will hurt its basic interests. The
North will demand a respectful and responsible approach to its
participation in the search for answers to the many questions
confronting our country.’’
According to him, responsible
governance and the rule of law are the fundamental prerequisite for the
realisation of peaceful and prosperous societies, as well as the
protection of human rights and dignity.
He said further: “It is
with considerable disquiet, therefore, that the NEF has witnessed the
recent developments in Nigeria, which have tilted towards subversion of
the Nigerian State and violation of the principles and tenets of the
rule of law and the protection of the lives and dignity of all
Nigerians.
“These developments have primarily been triggered by
some misguided elements of our country who have apparently harassed,
threatened and intimidated the rest of the country.
“The recent
unprovoked attacks against Northerners in some states in the South-East
and South-South of Nigeria pose an existential threat to the entire
country.
‘’NEF notes and commends the restrained and mature
reaction of the Northern leadership represented by the 19 Northern state
governors, senators, members of the House of Representatives and state
assemblies, traditional rulers, religious leaders, community
associations, politicians, elders, coalition of youth groups and the
millions of citizens of Nigeria from the North who recognized the value
of peace, and did not respond against the people from the states from
where killings and recent atrocities were perpetrated against
Northerners.
Nigerian federation’s unbalanced—El-Rufai
Meanwhile,
Mallam El-Rufai, yesterday, disclosed that his committee will submit
its report to the national chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun, by
end of October.
El-Rufai, who disclosed this at Chatham House in
London where he delivered a paper on restructuring, admitted that
although the Nigerian federation as it was currently was unbalanced,
majority of Nigerians believed the country was better off as a united
entity.
He said: “As I have argued since 2012, there is no doubt
that the Nigerian federation is unbalanced and in dire need of
structural rebalancing. This I think we all agree as Nigerians, but the
devil is in the details.
‘’While some advocate wholesale
abandonment of the existing political structure is probably unrealistic
in their expectations, I believe most Nigerians appreciate and cherish
our unity in diversity but seek the enthronement of a fairer,
meritocratic system that puts social justice above everything else. It
is not very hard to achieve this.
“The preponderance of opinion
is that the Federal Government needs to shed weight, and return powers
and resources to the states where most government functions can be more
efficiently undertaken.
“For states to take on these powers, they
need to access a greater share of the nation’s resources. And we need
to sort out the notion of citizenship so that every Nigerian can enjoy
the protection of the Constitution wherever they choose to reside.
‘’In
many communities, people still use the notion of ‘indigeneship’ to
consign compatriots to a position of ‘settler’ and, by implication,
perpetual exclusion from enjoying the full political, social and
economic opportunities guaranteed by the Constitution to every citizen.”
He
said after preliminary research and a careful review of history,
literature and reports, the committee has reduced the debate on
restructuring into twelve ‘contentious issues’.
‘’These are
creation or merger of states and the framework and guidelines for
achieving that; derivation principle; devolution of powers; federating
units: Should Nigeria be based on regions or zones or retain the
36-state structure? And fiscal federalism and revenue allocation.
‘’Others
are form of government – (parliamentary or presidential?); Independent
candidacy; Land tenure system; Local government autonomy; Power sharing
and rotation of political offices; Resource control; and Type of
legislature – part-time or full-time, unicameral or bicameral?’’ The
governor said.
Governor El Rufai noted that even “without any
legislation, national conference or constitutional amendment” the APC
government was already restructuring the country through “convention and
pragmatic devolution”.
He said further: “For instance, my
colleagues and I in Kaduna State Executive Council requested that the
Federal Government should re-designate two major roads in Kaduna, our
state capital, as state roads.
‘’The Federal Executive Council
granted our wishes, restoring the two roads to our control and saving us
the inconvenience of seeking permission from a federal bureaucrat
before we can install street lights on a major road in our state
capital.
“I also cited the fact that the Federal Government no
longer just issues mining titles in Abuja; rather it now works with
state governments that control the titles to land, unlike in our recent
non-collaborative past.
‘’In Kaduna State, we are trying to
devolve control of forests, management of fire services and other
‘state-level’ functions to our 23 local governments, in addition to many
others.
“I do not believe that a single, centralised police
force can deliver on the necessity to visibly project state power and
enforce the law in this vast country of ours with nearly 200 million
people, neither is the exclusive control of over-crowded prisons and an
unmanageable number of federal trunk roads and railways.”
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